I began relief teaching (subbing) a few weeks after ds#2 began high school at PS. Dh had lost his job 6 months before that so we needed the money. Now 7 years on I am very happy relief teaching & average 2-3 days a week during the school year at three schools. One of the schools I teach at have approached me to see if I'd be interested in a part-time contract (4 days a week.) This would be perfect for me as I still want to have the flexibility to go away for the weekend with Dh visiting our dc who have all left home. Dh is now officially retired so we have his gov't pension coming in to help with the budget. I really don't want a full-time position & all the extra stress & responsibilities that come with that. Ideally if I could get a one-day-a-week contract at each of my three school & be available to sub on the other 2 days I's be really happy.

In recent years head injuries in general have gotten a lot of attention here in NZ. Once or twice a year we seem to lose a young sportsman due to head injury complications. Rugby, soccer, field hockey have all put out head injury policies. Most of our sport is in club competitions with school competitions only for a week a year. (school teams play in their local club competition during the normal season.) As manager for one of our local premier mens field hockey teams I have had to deal with a variety of injuries, including head injuries. Keeping a competitive player off the turf is very difficult. I have had men jump back on as soon as they get a bandage on as they know we have a "No Blood" policy, but unless they were knocked out there isn't much to keep them from playing. Rugby does seem to attract the most media attention, but hockey & soccer have some risk as well & reach a wide number of young players in our area. No sport is with out risk.

We are a sea scout family here in NZ. Dh was a sea scout (from cub - venturer age) & both of our boys were in sea scouts from Keas - Venturers (5-18yo). I was a leader for over 10 years & dd was a sea scout venturer & earned her Queen scout. We really like sea scouts & still help out our local group when they need help. In NZ Scouts have 3 branches: Sea Scouts, Air Scouts, & Scouts (meaning land-based scouts). All 3 branches are part of Scouting NZ, but Sea Scouts & Air Scouts do more specialised activities as well as the normal camping, hiking, etc. Scouts in NZ is co-ed at all age levels. Dd only did venturers as she was a Brownie & Guide, then a Young Mariner. Young Mariners were started back before scouts allowed girls to join as girls-only version of Sea Scouts. HTH,

I first came here when it was the old, old board. I HSed for 10 years before dh lost his job & ds#2 decided to give PS a try for high school. Dd & ds#1 were already finished & studying at uni or in an apprenticeship, so having only one dc at home just wasn't the same. PS worked well for ds#2 & he's now only a year away from graduating uni. Dd & ds#1 are doing well. I re-entered the classroom as a relief teacher (substitute teacher) in Feb 2011 & am really enjoying teaching. I find that my years of HSing help to make me a flexible teacher, able to think outside of the box as needed. I really enjoy stopping by the chat board to catch-up & to get advice as needed. HSing was more than just books & studying. It's more of a lifestyle choice that doesn't really end when we put the books away.

Yeah, I was told not to whisper as well, but it was impossible to survive last week without at least whispering. I really should have just stayed home.

Help, please. I lost my voice on Monday last week while teaching the class from h*ll (intermediate school kids, very difficult class.) I probably should have refused to go into work, but the school could not find anyone to cover the class I was booked to sub in. Over the weekend I have spoke not at all, but my voice is still gone. :-( This week I have a full week booked as well. I am booked in a multiage class on Monday & Thursday (ages 5-13). I should be OK in that class as the kids are very well behaved & am very used to having me in class. On Tuesday I have a Y5/6 class (9-10yo) & they are a good class as well, but on Wednesday I am book in a NE class (5yo) who have been in school less than a term. I really need to be able to speak by then. Anyone have a secret recipe for regaining the power of speech? I am going crazy not being able to join in conversations. I write down what I need to say on a mini whiteboard, but that leads to stilted communication. My dh does think it is a big joke & is enjoying the quiet ;-P TIA

I'm in Northland & I think this price is pretty consistent in my area.

One thing I am VERY thankful for is the healthcare we have here in NZ. I went to the drs this week & it cost me $18 for the appointment & $5 each for the two prescriptions I needed. Total cost = $28. No health insurance needed & my taxes are not any higher than if I lived back in VT. Yes we pay $6 for a block of butter & almost $2 for a litre of gas, but at least I can get medical care without worrying if I can afford it.

That's pretty much my take home pay for relief teaching (subbing) here in NZ. It's pretty good pay for casual work. But it includes holiday pay as well as normal pay.

I just finished working a week when I really should have not been in the classroom. While working the previous Friday I had a head ache, sore throat, & could feel a head cold coming on. I slept most of the weekend as I knew I had a full week booked the next week in one classroom in our local intermediate school. On Monday I felt fine. I was given release the from roll until morning tea as the class had specialists (art, music, etc.) during that block. I'm really thankful that they gave me that time as usually subs would be put in another classroom to give a full-time teacher extra release. I used that time to get things in order in the classroom so the week would run smoothly. After the morning tea I explained to the class my expectations for the week & how things would work & we began maths. Before lunch I had almost lost my voice as this was the worst class I've had in the seven years I've taught at that school. By the end of the day I couldn't even croak, just no voice. The teacher next door took me to the DP & told her that I could not teach the next day like that. So I had Tuesday off & I went to the Drs & was put on antibiotics & steroids & given a medical slip saying no work for the rest of the week. Tuesday the class had 6 different teachers for 50 minutes each as the DP could not get anyone to sub. The school made those 6 teachers give up half their release time to cover that class. She rang me that night & pleaded with me to come in on Wednesday. So I worked the rest of the week with no voice. A medical certificate is useless if you have no sick leave. I could have said no, but I wouldn't have gotten paid & the class would have really had a useless week. The DP did make sure I wasn't asked to do any duty, something that is unusual as relieving teachers ALWAYS are on duty at that school. For my health I should have stayed home as even though I tried NOT to speak you just can't teach 12-13yo kids & difficult kids at that & not speak. I'm hoping that my voice will recover this weekend as I have little kids next week & I really NEED to be able to talk to teach 25 five year olds.

Subs in primary school are paid up to NZ$313.79 / day (before tax) here in NZ. That rate is 1/190 of a teacher's pay capped at step 8, with holiday pay included. From what I've read on an Aussie FB page for relief teachers, I think their rates are similar to NZ's. I remember years ago when I subbed just after graduating uni getting paid only $40 / day. NZ's rates are better.

I work as a relief teacher (substitute teacher) here in NZ. Schools all over NZ are finding it very hard to get subs. Classes are split up or teachers have to work when sick in many schools. I have turned down work heaps because I was previously booked in another school. Yesterday I could not work as I was sick in bed & they had 6 different teachers give up their prep time to cover the class through out the day. Today I went in sick with no voice to work as they just could not get anyone. I only work in the primary schools at the moment (age 5-12), but I believe high schools are struggling as well to find subs.

Glad she got hospital care so quickly. There are a few real nasty strains of flu going around this winter. One of them has high fever & head aches, much the same symptoms of meningitis. She may have fought one of those. I'm glad she's on the mend.

There are a number of strains of Meningitis. Meningitis B & C have vaccines.

There's about 11 now & 4 more announced by ACT this week :-( They were set up with the intention of helping the bottom 20% of students that PS was "failing." The only charter school that actually targeted those 20% struggled & has since been closed down. It was located about an hour north of where I live & enrolled students who were struggling with long-term truancy, drug problems, gang problems, etc. We have another of the first 4 charter schools in my town. Supposedly it is thriving. It is focused on building young Maori leaders for tomorrow. I know some people who send their children there & they are happy with the school. It started out as a Y9-13 school & has since opened a primary school as well. The controversy is quite political here in NZ. The gov't is telling PS that they are failing 20% of students, requiring PS to do more assessments, cutting funding & saying that class sizes don't matter, that only teacher quality makes a difference, & cutting funding for special needs, etc. At the same time the gov't is giving these charter schools HUGE start-up grants + much more $$$$ per student that they are contracted to teach (not actual bums on seats, like the PS are funded for). Charter schools are not required to meet National Standards or hire qualified teachers. I have not heard of any charter school that enrolls special needs students or transient students. The "successful" charter schools publicise their very low student teacher ratios. If all schools were funded to allow for classes of 15 students instead of 30+ students we would see much more of that bottom 20% succeeding. NZ does offer a lot of school choice. In my small city we have one private school using the Cambridge curriculum, one girls high school, one boys high school, one Catholic high school, two smaller Christian schools that teach Y0-13, & 2 co-ed high schools (one of which also has a trades academy & a service academy). Many of our primary schools have bi-linqual or full immersion classes as well as the normal English based classes. The charter schools didn't offer anything that wasn't already offered at our existing PS. JMHO

Our 3 dc are all young adults now. Dd went to uni 5 hours south of here at age 17 & has only returned home on holidays or for short stays between jobs, so we never asked her for board money. She has always been great about helping out around the house, so we value that as her contribution to our home. Ds#1 lived at home until he went overseas six months ago. He began his apprenticeship at age 18 & we helped him set up two automatic payments that went out each week. One was for $70 to us for board & the other was for $250 to his long-term savings account that he could only access through online banking, not by his ATM card. He was left with about $140 spending money each week based on what his beginning wage. He wasn't naturally good with money, but having this money disappear each week helped him to build up his savings fast so when he wanted to buy his own car he had the money to pay for it in cash. AS his apprenticeship progressed his wage increased & he began to move money INTO his long-term savings as seeing the balance grow helped to motivate him to save more. His board money has gone into a separate account under my name that we plan to return to him when he wants to buy a house, but he is unaware of this. He is currently home for a month while he prepares to head to Australia for work, so we haven't asked him to restart his board payments. Ds#2 is currently in uni 10 hours south of here & is only home 3-4 times a year for a few days each time. All 3 dc have paid for all their own personal expenses since they turned 18. Health costs are covered as NZ has universal healthcare, so no worries there. We made sure there was a car available if they needed one as soon as they each had their full drivers license. We paid all expenses except fuel for the cars we own, but if they chose to buy their own car as ds#1 did they are responsible for all the cost of the car (insurance, registration, etc.) We each have our own cellphones & they are all prepay, so everyone covers their own plans. Our dc have done this ever since they were first allowed to have a cellphone at age 13. We required them to buy their own & fund all costs of the phone they chose. All 3 dc know that they are welcome to live at home if needed, but if it is long-term (i.e. not just for a few weeks between jobs) then we expect them to pay board. When they are home, no matter if it's for long or short term, they are expected to help out as needed. We haven't had to face the situation of boy/girlfriends yet, but we would approach it the same way as if the partner was our own child. Over the years of our marriage we have stayed with both my parents & dh's parents at different times. We are very grateful that we were able to without undue stress. JMHO,

We have tile in the one bathroom that is finished so far. I chose big tiles, so less grout to keep clean. We love the look, but the other 2 bathrooms will have normal shower stalls as tiles it way too expensive. I use laundry powder to clean the tile & find that it is much more successful than normal cleaners at getting off soap scum, etc. ymmv

I did IF for a few years (the 5:2 diet, but fasting 3 days a week) & I lost 50 pounds, keeping it off for over 3 years. BUT about a year ago our long, drawn-out home renovation reached the stage where we needed to demolish the kitchen & renovate it. About the same time I began to get a lot more relief teaching (subbing) work. The combination of no real working kitchen for over 8 months & a lot of time working outside the home made IF just too difficult & I have regained most of the weight I had lost. We should have our new kitchen should be in working order before the end of September & I plan to restart IF. When I was following the 5:2 diet I slept better, had much more energy, felt overall more fitter, even with no increase in exercise, & was happy with how my clothes fit. IF isn't a quick fix to being overweight. You need to make it a long-term lifestyle change for true success.

Yep ;-) with 5 veg of course ;-)

I grew up in VT. Meals were Breakfast, Lunch, & Supper. Lunch or Supper was replaced with dinner when that was the main meal of the day. Here in NZ meals are Breakfast, Morning Tea, Lunch, Afternoon Tea, Tea (the main meal of the day), & Supper (meaning snack before bed.)

I'm looking for a laptop, too. Here's what I have narrowed down as requirements for me. ----8GB RAM (I don't do gaming or movies, etc. but 4GB RAM will make the laptop outdated a lot faster, so I'm looking at future-proofing my choice as long as possible.) ----SSD hard-drive 128+ GB (less things to go wrong & quicker overall speed) ----good battery life ----light, portable ----at least 2 USB-3 connections ----some sort of place for a dongle to be used to hitch it up to a projector to use at school ----no optical drive (that is just more moving parts to go wrong & if I do want to use a CD or CD-ROM I can use the external CD drive we already have) ----i5 or i7 processor I'm undecided as to whether to get an Macbook Air or a comparable Windows laptop. I like & am now used to Apple as we have had an iMac at home for 3 years & two of the schools I work at use either Apple or Chrome devices. The school I've been offered a job at has mostly Chrome boxes, but the teacher laptops are two really old, heavy Windows laptops. With most of the computer viruses lately targeting Windows computers, I'm tempted to go with Apple for security, even though I still put an anti-virus program on all our devices, no matter if they run Windows, Apple, or Android. JMHO,

Literacy = all aspects of reading, writing, listening, & speaking Numeracy = all aspects of maths, including arithmetic, measurement, geometry, algebra & statistics MLE = Modern Learning Environment, usually characterised by a large variety of tables (of different heights) chairs, beanbags, couches, stools, etc. in the room where students choose where they want to work & they have some choice in what order they want to work. Much of the work is done cooperatively & technology is utilised whenever possible. Daily 5/ Daily 3 = a way of organising how literacy & numercy are presented. Student choice is key to this working. After spending the past two days in this school, I now am much more aware of the wide range of abilities I will have in one class. One of my students is still struggling to sound out basic CVC words & others are working at a fluent level that has them working at a level where they will enter high school in February prepared to succeed. I have decided not to try to implement Daily 5/Daily 3 at this point as most of the students don't have the skills necessary to work to a high standard when choice is given. Instead I think a set rotation for literacy before snack time will allow me to spend 20 minutes each with 5 groups. When not working with me the groups will be rotated through 4 stations (writing, word study, SSR, & Reading Eggs / STEPS WEB on the computer). After snack I have an hour for maths. I will either do 3 groups of 20 minutes each (teacher time, book work, & Mathletics on the computer) or 4 groups of 15 minutes each (adding in manipulative games/play with the other 3 stations) How the abilities looks best to divide will determine how many groups I have. Afternoons will be used to cover all other subjects. It's just beginning to dawn on me how big a job I've taken on. Luckily for me there's only dh & I at home most days, so meals will be as simple as necessary. Housework is hit or miss as we are still in the mist of major home renovations.

I've been working as a relief (substitute) teacher for the past 7 years. On Friday one of the schools I teach at offered me a full-time position. I had a feeling that this might be offered as it is a very small school with a growing roll, but I didn't think they could get a new teacher approved by the MoE so fast. This school is a small Christian school, currently a one teacher full primary (ages 5-12) in one classroom. They have 5 more students that have indicated they want to transfer to this school in the next fortnight. The teaching principal told me on Friday that as soon as they have "bums on seats" they can open a second classroom. I have been her #1 relief teacher since she began at the school in January, even though I am not a member of their church, I am her first choice. I am quite interested in accepting the job, but it's been over 25 years since I last taught full-time. I'd love to hear how others found going back to teaching full-time after years off raising kids & homeschooling. Dh is supportive, but isn't pushing me to accept if I don't want it. Some background info. I would be the teacher of the senior class (Years 4-8, ages 8-turning 13). I would have 16 students, with 2 of those students new enrolments I haven't yet met. The five year 4 students are quite low, but the other students are on grade level for the most part. Three of the students head off to high school after this year & one heads off to another school for middle school. The school had a complete change of staff in January when it again dropped from two teachers to one teaching principal due to drop in numbers. This teacher has worked very hard to bring up the standard of teaching & encourage new enrolments. There is a part-time teacher who teaches one day a week, allowing the teaching principal to focus on principal duties. There is a teachers aide, who also cleans the school. I think she'd continue to work with the junior class, but as the student she was hired to work with left the school a couple months back, she may be asked to take a cut in hours as no new students have funding for teacher aide hours. The school is fairly well resourced & has a beautiful outdoor play area with a big field, playground, tennis court, gardens, etc. The technology isn't new, but is less than 6 years old. There is about 10 desktop computers running Chrome boxes, 2-3 old windows laptops, & a couple iPads to share between the classes. The furniture in the junior class is about 3 years old, but the senior class has very little as they had a cleanup of really old gear when the school dropped to one teacher the end of last year. The principal has told the board that new furniture & a few new computers are necessary for reopening the senior class. I've been jotting down a few ideas of draft timetables, wish lists for furniture, & general questions to ask the principal when I see her Monday afternoon. I am teaching for her both Monday & Tuesday, so will hopefully get to see more info on the level of the class, something I didn't need when working as a relief teacher. What sort of things would you suggest I ask, that I may not have thought of at this point? I am thinking of using the Daily 5 / Daily 3 to organise my literacy & numeracy programs. This would give me time to see all the students daily for both literacy & numeracy. The afternoons would be used to cover music, art, PE, & unit studies. MLE (modern learning environments) are all the rage here in NZ, with all new builds & renovations moving toward that style of classroom set-up. I'm not sure that that would be good for this small class, but desks in rows may not suit as well. How are classrooms where you re at set up? What do you see as pros & cons of that set-up? TIA,

I remember a whole dorm under quarantine because of a case of meningitis at my university. That was in the mid 80s

Meningitis is not something to take lightly. A few years back we had a doctor's son die of meningitis. He was just feeling a bit flu-like & went to bed. He was dead the next morning. This doctor was an Emergency Room doctor, so well trained & even he missed the symptoms. The symptoms look like the flu, so many wait too long to get help. Here we teach children as young as kindergarteners to recognise the symptoms (headache, fever, sore neck, etc.) & they are told never to share food, water bottles, etc. All 3 of my dc have been vaccinated for it. Even if they live off campus, the risk is high. Think of crowded lecture halls. Many of my freshman year classes had 200+ students. Those halls aren't wiped down with disinfectant between classes. You would be at a higher risk to catch something there than in the dorms IMHO. Also, in the dorms there are people who check on you (room mates, friends down the hall, your RA). If you live off campus, getting to a doctor is more of a hassle & you usually don't have as strong a support system right there. IMHO have her get the vaccination.